1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a character pattern generator, a character generating method, and a storage medium therefor, and more particularly to a character pattern generator which is used as a document processing device in a word processor, a personal computer or the like and which generates a bit map font at a high speed, and a storage medium containing a program for controlling the character pattern generator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a method for generating character patterns by outline font is known as a method for generating smooth character patterns without ruggedness in contrast to the bit map font. This outline font method involves a problem because a character pattern is generated by using, as a font data, coordinates of a plurality of control points obtained by sampling the outline of a character, performing a coordinate transformation in accordance with a character size or a character style, and painting the inside of the outline, so that the amount of data for the coordinates of the control points that must be stored increases as compared with the bit map font, thus requiring a ROM of large scale and, further, decreasing the speed of generating the character patterns.
Accordingly, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 6(1994)-167963 proposes a method and apparatus for generating character patterns in which a large amount of font data can be stored with reduced memory capacity. This character pattern generating method involves storing figure information expressing a common element constituting the a character patterns and construction information of the figure information corresponding to respective characters, expanding each of the figure information corresponding to a designated character into a bit map, and synthesizing the expanded bit map data in accordance with the construction information to generate the character pattern. Also, by storing the bit map data of the expanded figure information, if the figure information is to be expanded into bit map data and the corresponding bit map data are already stored, the character pattern is generated by synthesizing the stored bit map data.
According to the character pattern generating method disclosed in the above Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 6(1994)-167963, the figure information is configured in coordinates of the control points that can specify the outline showing a part of the character pattern, so that the data amount of the coordinates of the control points can be reduced in proportion to the communization of the figure information by storing the common figure information in a lump. However, this method involves a problem that the speed of generating the character patterns decreases in the same manner as in the case of the outline font because, in expanding the figure information into bit map data, the construction information of the character is transformed in accordance with the designated character size and synthesized into the bit map data by transforming the size/position of each figure information in accordance with the transformed construction information.